Thursday, September 15, 2011

Quiz on John Bierwen

Wednesday's guest speaker was John Bierwen, a producer of audio documentaries for NPR. PRI and BBC, among other networks. He is also a faculty member at Duke University's Center for Documentary Studies.
Choose a work presented by John Bierwen.
1- Describe what you heard.
2- In the piece you selected, what role does the narrator play? Or if there was no narration, how does the absence of narration influence the work?

Authors of audio pieces presented:
1. Debbie Fischer - a grandfather's memory of Auschwitz
2. Shining Li - a young boy discusses his concepts of death
3. Sherre DeLys - young children use the word "If"
4. John Bierwen - documentation of his daughter as she grows up

19 comments:

  1. Shining Li - Fear of Death

    This piece started out just as a conversation between two siblings separated by years. The sister is 21, and the boy is 8 years old and entirely sassy and sure of himself. He talks to her about his feelings on death, about how empty it is. He talks about the absolute nothingness in a way that an adult wouldn't think of - "You don't do anything, you can't do anything, y-y-your're, you're just nothing." He talks of it less like an end of living, and more like an end of action. The narrator is the sister, who sometimes appears as a telephoned-in voice, and as a voice-over. She wrestles with and reconciles her own fears about death, and her protectiveness for a little brother that lives hundreds of miles away.

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  2. Sherre DeLys- young children use the word "If"

    In the work "If" by Sherre DeLys, I heard children's thoughts take on a sense of improvisation. I could hear another child listening in on and reacting to the first child's story. I also heard the child's thoughts take on a musicality presented by the cellist. There was an absence of narration in this work. WIth the absence of narration the focus could be more heavily directed to the child and the musicality of his speech. In some ways it almost felt as if the cellist was the narrator trying to make sense of the child's speech.

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  3. Shining Li - Fear of Death

    I heard Shining Li talking about/interviewing her 8 year old brother. She opened with a discussion about her being 21 and him being 8 and how she believed they didn't have much in common. She then went on to talk about her brother, unlike many of his peers, was afraid of death. She is sad that he is afraid of death at such a young age because there is nothing she can do to protect him from his fears. If he knows and thinks about death, what else does he think about?

    Shining as a narrator both interviewed/prompted her brother and reflected on his statements. She handled the interview well, giving a small nudge and letting her highly intelligent and interesting brother talk in his own way about his own thoughts. Her reflecting on her brother's words gives insight to her own thoughts, and makes the listener reflect on themselves at 8 years old, or how their own younger siblings can surprise and challenge them. I was particularly struck with how this 8 year old boy had such grown up ideas that accurately resembled my own thoughts on death.

    Chloe Hill

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  4. Shining Li's "Fear of Death" piece was about her 8 year old brother and his grave fear of death. You heard him describing death and what he most fears about it. "you are basically nothing" you were in the ground, you cant see, you cant feel, you cant move. He got himself worked up and you could hear the fear in his voice. The role the narrator plays in this recording is to first describe her relationship with the person being interviewed, and then pick apart what he is saying and make it in a simpler context. She described her reactions and emotions to hearing her little brother talk about death in this way, when most 8 year olds are more concerned about playing outside.

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  5. John Bierwen presented his own work, Scared, during his presentation. In this piece selected, he plays a father, scared of the fact that his daughter is growing up. He wanted to hold on to his "little girl" and the fact that she's becoming interested in more mature things is what ultimately "scares" him. We hear his daughter from the time she was an infant, to calling and saying she wont be home to later, to now having "the talk." It's almost as if when you hear this piece you feel as if you, too, are growing up with her. You hear the evolution of how he reacts to her aging and how he feels as a father. I think that the narrator plays an extremely significant role because its something everyone can relate to. I know personally my own father feels the same way sometimes and it was almost as if I could picture my dad and how he feels while hearing the piece. Also the narrator was important because without him, the whole "scared" aspect of the piece would have been lost. His daughter is not scared of growing up, he is more scared of letting her go.

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  6. In John Bierwen's own piece, "scared," documenting his daughter growing up, John provided narration of his daughters maturing while splicing in clips of her speaking at different ages. He talked about the love he feels and how afraid he is of letting her go, but he knows he must.
    In this piece john narrates somewhat vaguely but holds the frame for the story while his daughter's speaking elaborates on things as he is talking about them. He moves the short narrative from one idea to the next, creating a gentle flow, and ultimately, the main idea he is trying to get across.

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  7. 1. The piece displayed a single voice of a woman recalling a memory related to her father. She spoke of a memory of his that she had heard about when she was younger, and her initial reaction and then, as she grew older, followed skepticism. She then spoke of being with her father in the hospital and how she finally was able to hear the truth, though she doesn't recount her father's story.
    In this piece the narrator plays a very emotional role, the story she is telling showcases her father's protectiveness, and how he tried to shield that horror from his daughter. The emotion in her voice, especially towards the end of the piece is extremely powerful. Even though you don't hear the horrific story, her reaction when speaking of it is just as moving. The narrator creates a scene in your mind, and you find yourself diving into the emotion in her voice. It creates a feeling as though you were there, and actually heard her father's story yourself.

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  8. Sherre DeLys-If

    In this piece, a young boy speculates what it would be like to be in a different body. He repeatedly makes statements, all beginning with the word "if." Eventually he reveals to us that he is a patient at the children's hospital.

    This piece lacks formal narration. It is edited to mimic stream of consciousness writing as we get a constant stream of the young boy's thoughts, speculations, and ideas. There are moments towards the end of the piece where the boy recalls his experiences at the children's hospital, but that is the only narrative aspect of the piece. For the most part, there is no narration and the lack thereof allows the piece to mimic stream of consciousness and make the audience experience the boy's thoughts.

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  9. In the piece "If" by Sherre DeLys, a young boy describes what he would do if he were a bird or a plant looking on the children's hospital. There is also a musician singing and playing the cello to a few of his words.

    This piece has no narration but it makes the piece stronger. While we hear the child just speak his mind, it makes it more natural. He says strange things that is hard for adults to understand in a way, but it makes it a very real situation. In a way, it makes your mind revert to a child-like state; it takes you into the past.

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  10. Debbie Fischer - Storycorps

    In Debbie Fischer's piece through Storycorps, she talked about the fact that her father went through Auschwitz and, despite her constant questions and curiosity, he always told her that after the initial killing when he first entered the camp, he was well fed and never suffered. Of course, this did not satisfy Debbie. When her father was in the hospital dying, she asked him again and he asked her if she really wanted to enter a room she could never leave. She agreed and he told her the real story of his time in the camp. The pieces finishes with Debbie admitting that her father was right: there was no way for her to leave the room once she'd heard the story. It would always be in the back of her mind.

    In this piece, Debbie is the sole narrator with no other voice speaking which works well for the story that she is telling. If she had her father speak about the experience they shared in the hospital, hearing his voice would add to the story but would also change it drastically. The story is more about Debbie's experience of listening to her father than her father's actual time spent in the camp. It would seem jarring to have her father's voice in the piece and her narration is emotional and candid enough to stand on its own.

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  11. In John Bierwen's piece, Scared, he was the narrator in his story and it was extremely influential. John collected recordings for a duration of time of 14 years of his daughter as she was growing up. In the beginning, he was giving a detailed description of flesh and thighs and trying to describe something that he loved so dearly. Initially, i thought it was some type of lover of his and then a baby started crying which really changed my perception of the piece. I really appreciated the fact that he opened the piece in an unexpected way which made it that much better.
    As the piece continues he narrates his daughter growing up and how he was scared to let her go and become her own person. As a father i am sure it was very difficult for him to watch his baby girl grow up and go through life experiences. He mentions how no one writes pop songs about this kind of love which i really appreciated as well. I cannot relate to having a child and loving them so dearly but i can relate to loving my parents so dearly yet, the only type of love you hear on the radio is not too often about the love a family shares for one another. This piece really sparked my interest into audio art and definitely gave me some great ideas for my own piece. Because of his narration there was a clear and easy flow throughout the piece that almost allowed you to grow up simultaneously with him and his daughter.
    One last thing that i loved about this piece was that there was a recording within a recording and other music. The recording within a recording was when he had the voicemail saved with his daughter as a teenager mentioning that she was out and would give him a call or she can call him. It was right on target with a typical voicemail a teenager would leave their parents but i thought it had a big impact that it was put into an audio piece.

    -Shelby Danow

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  12. Shining Li - a young boy discussing his concepts of death

    In Li's pieces she discusses her relationship between her and her brother and talk about his fear of dying. In the beginning, the piece is playful. She talks about how far they live away from one another, as he laughs and talks in the background. However, the piece takes a somewhat sober tone as she explains her brothers fear of death. Her brother tries to explain his fear but he seems to never be able to clearly explain it.

    Throughout the audio piece LI narratives her thoughts, reactions, and feelings about her brother and his fears while her brother tries to explain death and his fear of it. As you listen, the separation of between the narrative and boy talking creates a kind of distance itself. You could feel the sister's longing to give her brother an answer she didn't even know.

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  13. One of my favorite pieces that was presented during John Bierwen's speech was the one by Shining Li. In this piece she spoke with her younger brother. She started out discussing their differences, age being one of the largest, then finally coming to a similarity. They were/are both afraid of death. The way that he spoke so insightfully of the ideas of death was jarring but rather engaging. He kept coming back to the idea that when you died you became nothing. Everything became all black, and there was just nothing. She even discussed the idea that he used to believe in heaven but doesn't anymore. His seemingly perfect clarity was almost envious, however being his young age, it seems he should not even be entertaining those thoughts.
    Shining Li was narrating throughout the piece, but still directly involved with her brother in the way of interviewing. At times you could hear her distantly asking the questions to him, and his responses, but she also had clear bits of narration throughout narrating her reactions to his thoughts and hers as well.

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  14. In the piece, "If" by Sherre DeLys, I heard bits and pieces of imaginative ideas that a child was creating. For example, what he would do if he was a certain animal. I heard laughter, jokes, squeals and other strange noises, and notes played by instrument. I don;t think this piece had any narration- I wouldn't really say that the boy was a narrator, because all of what he was said was not clear, or in any sort of order that made sense. The absence of a narrator made this piece much stronger in my opinion, because the things that the boy says are able to still be
    abstract. A sound piece with someone just interviewing a child on "what would you do if you were this animal?" followed by a child answering, would be much less interesting. Without being guided through the piece by a narrator, you never really knew where he was going to go with what he was saying, and it added to the whimsical, childlike feeling of the piece.
    -Ashley Allis

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  15. Shining Li's "Fear of Death" is strikingly similar to the narrative structure and devices employed in writing fictional short stories. Shining acts as a first person narrator, guiding the listeners through snipits of her younger brother's attempt to describe what death is and the fear it brings him. John described her narration as "bite size ideas," which are ideas that are short, and easy on the ear. These bite size ideas slowly nudge listeners into the path Shining had laid out, like hints in a fictional story that lead the readers to the climax of the story arc. Not only was Shining successful in drawing out certain emotions from the listeners, listeners are able to assume the role of a big sister as her urge to shelter and protect her younger brother grow more pronounced as the track progresses on.

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  16. Shining Li created an audio documentary based off of her younger brothers idea of death. The piece begins by explaining the huge age gap between her and her brother. As the narrator, Shining Li questions her brother about his views on what it means to be dead. The young boy has very strong/mature opinions about being "nothing". Throughout the piece I couldn't help but to wonder why and how this young child came up with this idea of nothingness. I wonder, has the media helped drive home his opinions, or is this opinion generated from his youthful innocence alone?

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  17. John Bierwen's scared was the most interesting piece I heard. This piece was about his fear of his daughter growing up. It started off as if he was talking about his lover but right when the giggle of a baby came in, we all knew that it was about his child. It seemed to be more personal and emotional as he recorded his daughter's voice since she was a baby until she became a teenager. While John narrated from time to time, his daughter's voice was the main focus of the piece. He explained how when "touch" is spoken in the pop culture, a touch of their child doesn't usually come into people's mind. It was interesting to think about that idea and how unaware we are about what is more important and sincere. His piece really felt close to heart, as it is something that we could all relate to. I think he portrayed his feelings for his daughter very well even though he never directly said that he was "scared". Even though some parts of the piece was about interviewing his daughter, I felt that he was communicating with us as well.

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  18. Among the audio works which John Bierwen presented, Shining Li's Fear of Death was the most impressive. Shining Li interviewed her 8 years old brother who fears death. He described death as going nowhere, feels nothing. He repeated the word nothing again and again. At first she thought that he is too young so that he cannot find a right word to describe he's feeling. But then, she realized that there is no right word for the feeling of death either. Narrator did a good job of explaining the vague and mysterious feeling of the death using the interview with her brother. If there was no conclusion after the interview, there would be less impact.

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  19. Choose a work presented by John Bierwen.
    1- Describe what you heard.
    2- In the piece you selected, what role does the narrator play? Or if there was no narration, how does the absence of narration influence the work?

    In John Bierwens, 'Scared' I heard Bierwen talking about his daughter, as well as the juxtaposition of clicks of his daughter throughout a span of her life. Bierwen is exploring and talking about the difficulty of letting go and accepting that his child is growing up and becoming a woman. In this piece the narrator serves as one of the main characters focusing on elements of his love for his daughter. From the immediate love he felt towards her (not portrayed in pop songs or any mainstream music) to seeing all her physical attributes as a baby, to even watching her read, grow up and enter puberty; it is evident that the narrator is a loving and devoted father who is having trouble letting go of his 'little girl'. The ending of the clip leaves the audience thinking about what will become of the girl and the father-daughter relationship once other boys come into the girls life and distance her more and more from her father.

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